Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation

The second Agile core value. When I read this core value for the first time, I honestly chuckled because though I love to write I was never a fan of documentation. I also did not code, and my job was to always to ensure working software was delivered to clients. Both in project management and client management roles.

Having been part of a lot of projects and having seen the mammoth effort spent on documentation (and other work) I have experienced moments where we as a team forgot what it is that we are into. building and delivering Software or creating Documentation or fighting fires.

It might sound weird to someone now, but for those who have been in the industry for a while and used to pick up fixed bid bespoke software development in the nineties hoping to deliver and make profits will know. Much before the agile era. Multi year projects where half a year was spend on documenting and there was still a feeling that project has progressed without a single line of code written. And we mark the progress on Dashboards and reports. No one thought there was an issue...

Now we know a few things... 'Effort done is not progress, value delivered is the progress'. Working software and not documentation is what ultimately delivers value. Our customers realize the major chunk of value through using a workable software. Documentation is needed and it also has value, but its value is a diminished null when there is not workable software at all.

Today when people read this core value, they might think why are we talking about it, but those who have got their hands dirty know that even today a lot of scrum teams do not deliver workable software at the end of a sprint though they have been calling them Agile for a while. Agreed that it is not because of documentation, but that paradigm shift of 'Value is Working Software' is still missing in many places.

The interesting thing in this Core Value is the phrase 'Comprehensive Documentation'. It does not say Documentation should be avoided, it just says, do it just enough because that is not the value you are delivering.

There is a reason why we say Agile is a mindset and mindsets take time to change and to be agile one has to learn from one's own iterations because our team dynamics, markets, challenges are all unique and our journey is also unique.

This week we need to ask, what might be stopping us from delivering workable software every sprint. How do we see Documentation. We might not be doing documentation the way we used to before, but documentation has also morphed into many different things today. Look at all those things that are not adding value to your customer. If you are Scrum Master, do you spend way too much time doing minutes of meetings and dashboard beautification instead of removing impediments, serving and coaching your team.. Well!!!!

Reading: I just started 'The Prosperity Paradox' the 2019 book by Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillion talking about How innovations can lift Nations Out of Poverty.

Podcast: As you know I have started a new podcast "The Penpositive Podcast" and the second Episode of that was a Book Review, I felt Book reviews are better done over Podcast rather than Videos. You can listen to it on Anchor, Spotify, & Apple. Or You can listed in the link below

Videos: Did not make any on the Penpositive Channel but plan to do a few on estimation, servant leadership and so on in coming days. My Quote and Talk content project is going in it's minimal form on my Vinod Narayan YouTube Channel.

Till I catch you next week. Be Content; Be Penpositive!!